Split Decision

Split Decision
Premiere Date	November 9, 1995 (#9724D)
Pricing Game Location	Turntable
Previous Premiered Pricing Game	Freeze Frame
Next Premiered Pricing Game	Shopping Spree
Finale Date	January 16, 1997 (#0214K)

Split Decision was a pricing game that offered a car and a three-digit prize worth between $300 and $999.

Gameplay

• The contestant was shown a row of eight digits, which represented the five-digit price of the car and the three-digit price of the other prize. The prices were in order within the string, but not necessarily side-by-side, so the contestant had to pull three digits down from the first row to leave the car's price in the top row and the other price in the bottom row. Doing so won both prizes.
• The contestant was given a 20-second time limit in which to attempt to find the correct prices. When the clock started, the contestant had to pull three numbers from the top row down and press a button to stop the clock. The prices were checked, and if they were not correct, the numbers were reset, and the clock was started again for the contestant to repeat the process. If the contestant did not find the correct prices when the clock hit zero, they did not win the prizes. Similar to Race Game, when the timer hits zero, the contestant must wrap up their changes, but are allowed to have one final check.
• The clock was removed from the game on May 24, 1996 (#9995D, the very last episode under the D taping), and the contestant was instead simply given three chances to guess the correct prices. After only two playings under this format, the original format returned on June 5, 1996 (#0023K) and lasted until the game was retired.
• Toward the end of the game's life, if the contestant did not pull down the three correct digits for the smaller prize, Bob Barker left the digits as they were and did not reset them. This proved to help the contestants more than starting from scratch and resulted in a slightly better win percentage before the game's retirement in 1997.

History

• Split Decision received its first win on November 21, 1995 (#9742D).
• One notable playing occurred on May 16, 1996 (#9984D). During that playing, two numbers fell off their markers (the second on the last attempt), and during one attempt the clock froze. After the first number fell off, Barker attempted to replace the number. When that failed, he threw the number out onto the stage to laughter. Unfortunately, the game ended in a loss. The clock also froze once on the first playing and another playing from April 8, 1996 (#9931D).
  • The events from this playing are often blown out of proportion as if these were frequent occurrences or something related to the games' retirement. While this playing did highlight the sometimes frustrating nature of the game that did lead to its retirement, this was the only known playing where any parts of the set fell off (let alone two).
• On November 18, 1996 (#0141K), contestant Teresa was confused about how to play, pulling down four numbers and trying to get help from Bob on pushing one number back, spending 16 seconds on her first attempt. She did, however, manage to win the game.
• On the game's final playing contestant Jason guessed that the price of a dishwasher was $512 twice in a row. Its actual price was $529. This and the aforementioned playing may have contributed to the game’s retirement.
• The reveal of this game was virtually identical to Any Number in that the 3-digit prize is presented first. The only differentiating factor that determines if this game or Any Number will be played was that Rod Roddy would say "and... a new car!" instead of "or... a new car!"
• When the contestant pressed the button to stop the clock, a different-sounding bell was heard, and as with other timed games, a foghorn sounded once the clock was at zero.

Trivia

• The most number of times this game was played in any season was 26 (season 24), while the least number of times this game was played in any season was 8 (season 25).
• Split Decision was played a total of 34 times (26 in Season 24 and 8 in Season 25) during its 14 months in the pricing game rotation.
• Split Decision is similar to Any Number, 2 for the Price of 1, Squeeze Play, Temptation, and Make Your Move.
• This was also the name of an unsold game show pilot for NBC hosted by Jim McKrell in 1985.

Retirement

• Split Decision was retired due to its confusing rules and unfairly high level of difficulty. During its 14 months in the rotation, the game's win ratio was 50%. For the time that it appeared, the game was played more frequently than Any Number, another game that uses the same prize combination; however, unlike Any Number, both prizes can be won and the numbers can repeat, in addition to the fact that there is no "piggy bank" with a small cash sum involved.

Foreign versions

• On the UK's Bruce's Price is Right, it was played using seven numbers as it was played for a four-digit car and a three-digit prize. In this version, the top price represented the three-digit prize and the bottom price represented the car, therefore, the contestant had to pull the four numbers down in the price of the car.

Gallery

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